Inevitable
by Addicted2TV
Summary: Sometimes bad things happen no matter how hard you try to stop them. X-Over with Star Wars Episodes 2 and 3.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer – I own neither the rights to the Star Wars Universe nor the Buffy Universe, because if I did I'd be really rich and buy a tropical island and never leave the beach.

Inevitable

Sometimes bad things happen no matter how hard you try to stop them.

Chapter 1

Buffy sat huddled in her makeshift shelter as yet another sandstorm raged outside. It was times like this that she couldn't deny the loneliness that she felt. Normally she was able to stay busy enough to subdue the pain in her heart, but when she was stuck in these storms with nothing to do, that pain had the power to cripple her. She guessed that it was about 3 years ago that she had come to this dimension, and had lost everyone dear to her. Then she corrected herself, she hadn't lost everyone right away, no, that happened a few months later. Time was hard to tell here, on some planets the sun, or suns in some cases, never set, and on some they rarely came up, plus in the beginning she was often indoors for long periods of time so she had to admit to herself that she had no idea how she had been there. Sometimes when she was alone like this she would wonder how old she was, or if time was passing differently back in her own dimension, how old would she be there, would she be older or younger than she was here? It could be that not even a week had passed in her home world. Home… did she even consider it home anymore with no family left there? Buffy lay back down on the floor of her shelter and let her mind drift back….

Glory had been defeated, finally, but not before Dawn's blood had been spilt and the portal opened. The gang had rushed up the tower to where Dawn was shackled. The platform didn't look very sturdy so Buffy had everyone stay back as she went to free Dawn. Just as she released Dawn from her last binding a series of lighting bolts shot out of the portal and hit the tower causing everyone on it to fall to their knees writhing in pain. Then when the lighting stopped and they had started to get back to their feet the tower began to collapse and one by one they began to fall from the tower and through the portal. As Buffy fell backwards through the portal behind Dawn she could see it closing above her, she saw the fear in Anya, Willow and Tara's eyes, she could only guess that the fall had killed them.

It felt like she was falling for hours, somehow she had flipped over onto her stomach, the darkness was absolute, then she felt extreme heat, and then she saw what she could only describe as hell. There were rivers of lava all around her, and she could see metal catwalks of some sort crisscrossing the rivers. It was one of these catwalks that she landed on, hard. No sooner had she landed than she saw Spike burst into flames and turn to ash, apparently vampires couldn't survive wherever they were. She could hear Dawn's screams but couldn't see her. She pulled herself over to the side of the catwalk and saw that Giles was hanging off the side of the platform with Dawn hanging onto his feet. About 10 feet away Xander was also hanging on to the edge of the platform. Before Buffy could even move to help any of them, Dawn started to scream and writhe in pain, Giles tried to yell at her to hold still that she would cause them both to fall, but there was no overcoming her screams, then there was silence, as a bright light swallowed Dawn up and she disappeared.

She worked quickly and got Giles up on the catwalk and then they both pulled up Xander, it was only then that she realized that he had been burned badly from the waist down.

She couldn't stop herself from saying "Oh Xander" in sympathy.

"As soon as he went over the side I saw lava shoot up from below and engulf him." Giles explained.

Buffy cradled Xander in her arms and tried to soothe him while Giles tried to see how bad his burns were.

She took the opportunity to question Giles. "Where are we?"

"I don't know, I guess a different dimension."

"What happened to Dawn?"

"I can only surmise that since she had fulfilled her duty as Key and opened and closed the portal there wasn't any mystical energy left to keep her human form."

"So she's gone? Really gone?"

Giles looked at her sadly. "Yes I'm afraid so."

He looked down at Xander's burns and then looked at Buffy and shook his head. Buffy felt a tear escape down her check, but it didn't make it far in the extreme heat of this place, it evaporated before it got past her nose.

She continued to hold Xander in her arms and stroke his hair. They sat on the catwalks trying to figure out what to do next. Finally they decided that Buffy should go look for help and Giles would stay with Xander. Buffy picked a direction and started walking, but the only thing close to humans she found were robots doing some sort of work, and they wouldn't respond to her. After an hour or so of searching in that direction she returned to the catwalk to check in on Giles and Xander, and to then search in another direction. However when she got back, Giles and Xander weren't alone, they were surrounded by people, or on closer inspection, some of them were people and some looked to be demons.

Giles saw her approaching and yelled, "RUN BUFFY!"

Buffy didn't want to leave Giles and Xander, but wasn't sure what she could do without any weapons. So she ran. Unfortunately her strength was waning, between the fall from her dimension, and the heat in this world she was exhausted. She was soon overtaken, though she was able to fight off a few of the guys who caught up to her, but soon there were just too many, and she was just too tired. She continued to try and wrestle herself from their grasps, as they dragged her back over by Giles and Xander.

One of the men who had captured her spoke to a man who seemed to be the leader. "She's strong; she'll fetch a good price."

The man walked forward and regarded her closely, he reached out to touch her hair and Buffy recoiled from his touch, he grabbed her chin hard and forced her to look at him. "Yes she would, but I may have another use for her."

Giles started to protest them man-handling Buffy, so one of the men holding him hit him over the head and knocked him out. Two men gathered him up between them and started dragging him off in the direction Buffy hadn't explored.

Buffy's capturers soon followed. They brought her by Xander who she could see was barely conscious. She stopped moving and twisted herself in the men's grasps to address the leader.

"Please help my friend."

The leader looked down at Xander. Put his foot on his side and pushed him over the edge and into the river of lava below. After that Buffy just went numb, she didn't know how long she was out of it, all she knew was that when she snapped out of it she and Giles were in a cell of some sort shackled to opposite walls. They were kept mainly like that for what seemed like weeks with little to eat or drink. Sometimes they would come and take Giles away for a while, and sometimes they took her, but Giles and Buffy never talked about what happened to them while they were apart.

They knew they were in a vehicle of some sort, and she could only guess what the world outside would look like when they were let outside again. She wondered if anything could be worse than the hell that they had landed in.

Then one day the movement of the vehicle stopped and four men walked into their cell two walked toward Giles, and two to her, they attached a collar of some sort around each of their necks.

Then the leader, whose name was Warric they had found out, strolled in.

"Just so we're clear, you are mine, I own you both, and you will do whatever I or my men tell you to do. If you don't there will be consequences."

Then took what looked like a remote control out of his pocket and pressed a few buttons, simultaneously Buffy and Giles fell to the floor as electricity flowed from the collar into their bodies.

When the electricity stopped flowing he continued. "If either of you disobeys me or causes trouble you both will be punished."

Buffy had never felt more defeated than at that moment, because she knew she could take whatever they dished out, but by them threatening Giles too, they had found the perfect way to control her.

Buffy and Giles were unshackled and led out of their cell, and then out of the vehicle that had been transporting them. Upon seeing it Buffy could only describe it as a space ship, like one she had seen in sci-fi movies back home. The place they had been brought to was desolate, but not like the land of lava they had landed in. There were steam vents everywhere and from what she could see many of the inhabitants looked like bugs.

At that point she and Giles were separated, they would see each other occasionally in passing, but they were never able to speak to each other, but that had been enough for Buffy to just see him, and see that he was doing okay. Buffy didn't know what Warric was using Giles for, but he used her as a gladiator. Warric would put his slave fighter's against some other guys slave fighter's. In her first fight Buffy tried not to fight back, she had only ever fought demons before, and didn't want to hurt a human being, but once Warric had activated her collar for almost 5 minutes straight she realized she didn't have much of a choice. She saw two of Warric's men holding up Giles next to him, it looked like Giles had passed out from the prolonged exposure to the voltage. Buffy won that fight, and every fight since that she fought for Warric. They had found the perfect way to control her, and Warric knew it and exploited it.

Then one night probably around 6 months into their time in this dimension, she heard Giles' voice outside her cell.

"Buffy? Buffy, are you there?"

"Giles?" She went over to the window.

"Come on we're getting out of here." He told her.

"Giles, I can't get out I've tried a hundred times, Warric put me in a special cell that he knew I wouldn't be able to get out of."

Giles surveyed the bars of the window and the think walls and saw that it was no good; he wouldn't be able to get her out.

Buffy saw the defeated look on Giles' face. "Please go without me."

"No! Not a chance." He hissed at her.

"Please Giles. It will be easier for me knowing you're safe, knowing that I don't have to worry about you getting hurt if I try to escape later."

Reluctantly Giles conceded. "I won't go far; I'm going to find a way to get you out."

With that he ran off. Not long after Giles left her window, alarms starting wailing throughout the compound. There was a lot of commotion, and Buffy watched from her cell window as the guards ran around trying to bring those that had escaped back in. She saw slaves being dragged back into the courtyard and beaten. Then her heart broke as she saw two men drag Giles into her line of sight. They threw him to the ground and she saw blood coming out of his mouth, Giles' head rolled to the side so she was looking right into his eyes, she could see that he was trying to speak, but no sound was coming out of his lips, and then he stopped moving all together, he was gone. Buffy turned around and sank to the floor, and didn't move for days.

Warric tried to get her to fight, but no matter how much he shocked her she wouldn't budge. After a few days he left her alone, until he found a new way to control her, he knew she'd be no good to him in a fight.

A few weeks later, Buffy felt a change in the air, it wasn't just that the guards started acting more on edge, but there was something more, something she could feel. There was power nearby; actually when she focused on it she could feel two sources of power, one she could only describe as dark, and the other seemed light. The possessor of the power that felt dark was soon made evident to her when Warric walked in with a tall man dressed all in black.

"This is Count Dooku." He told her. "He has heard of your fighting abilities and would like to see them in action. There will be an important fight in a few days that will allow you to show them off for him."

"I'm not a trained seal; I don't do tricks on command." She spouted back.

The Count took a step towards her; she could feel the evil wafting off of him. She tried to take a step back, but her legs didn't seem to understand the command.

"You will fight." The Count told her.

Buffy's insides were screaming at her to agree, but she fought them off. "I don't think you heard me maybe you need to turn up your hearing aid old man, I'm done fighting."

The Count took another step closer and looked deep into her eyes and waved his hand slightly as he told her again. "You will fight."

With that, Buffy felt her free will leave her body and she agreed. "I will fight." It was similar to when she was under the thrall of Dracula, but 1000 times stronger.

Buffy spent the next few days training, she could feel the evil cloud of Count Dooku hanging over her, and he seemed to be around a lot watching her. The day of the fight arrived; Buffy looked out into the stadium and saw three people chained to tall stone pillars, they were unarmed.

Buffy looked over to Warric. "They're unarmed. I'm not fighting unarmed people."

Warric didn't even respond he just looked over at Count Dooku who immediately walked toward Buffy, this time he didn't use his power of persuasion, instead he put his hand out in front of him, and all of a sudden Buffy was lifted off her feet by an invisible hand that was squeezing her throat. Just as she started to black out, he released her and she fell to the ground. He looked down at her. "You will fight." And then he and Warric walked out.

Buffy stared back at him, and then when she was sure he was gone she brought her hand to her throat, and the collar that was on it. It felt looser; when Dooku had grabbed her with his invisible hand she had heard a small crack. She pulled on it, and it had some give but it still wouldn't come off, but they had made her mad, and that was never a good idea.

Then she heard the crowd cheer and the doors opened in front of her. She looked at the weapons they had given her to choose from and grabbed a few. She then went running out into the arena. She saw that she was the only human fighter; the other doorways were filled with beasts of some sort. Buffy broke out in a full run toward the pillars; she could now see that it was a girl who might be her age, a boy who looked a few years younger, and a guy whose age was hard to tell due to a full beard on his chin. She was impressed as she saw the girl undo her shackles and climb the chain to the top of her pillar. As she approached the two men she dropped all but one of her weapons, a large battle axe, she continued to run at full force toward them, she saw them take a defensive stance, but she kept running, she swung the axe high and brought it down on the chain of the older man breaking it. Her momentum continued her forward past them, but she caught the look of surprise that the men shot her. Before Buffy could swing around to break the other chain her collar was activated and she fell to the ground in convulsions. The man with the beard ran over to her and knelt beside her

"No don't touch me." She gasped. She shoved the axe at him. "Look out behind you!"

One of the beasts reared up behind him, he took the axe and turned to fight.

As she lay on the ground all she could do was watch the fight that was unfolding. The younger man had freed himself from the pillar although the shackles and chains were still attached to his wrists. Buffy wasn't sure why, but at some point her collar stopped shocking her. She saw a tall bald black man standing on the platform where Warric normally stood. Then she looked to the ground in front of the platform and saw Warric sprawled on the ground. She gingerly got up, letting her legs get there bearings again, and then ran over to him, he was dead, and he still held the remote to her collar in his hand. It looked like it had been damaged in his fall, but she grabbed it and hooked it to her belt anyway not wanting anyone else to get a hold of it, she also grabbed his blaster and started shooting at the droids that had started to fill the arena. She had never thought much about guns, because they weren't much good against the demons she was used to fighting, but with the number of droids coming in with guns, she didn't see any other choice. She saw the bearded man fighting off the droids with some kind of sword that glowed, but every once in a while he would wave his hand and send a group of droids flying through the air. The tall black man was also fighting with a glowing sword, along with him, more and more strange people were jumping into the arena with glowing swords. Buffy fought her way through to the middle of the fray. She was now near the bearded man. She found her axe at his feet and picked it up and started swinging. As the fight went on, more and more droids entered the arena, and Buffy and the people with the glowing swords were being drawn into a tighter circle in the middle of it. As a fighter Buffy appreciated the skill that the sword wielders displayed, but they were way out numbered and she saw that they had little chance of succeeding. Buffy watched as the bearded man took on wave after wave of droid attack, without skipping a beat. Her eye was drawn to something in the stands; a man was aiming a blaster at the bearded man.

"Hey look out." She yelled at him, but he didn't realize she was talking to him. So she dove and pushed him out of the way.

She hadn't really meant to take the blast for him, ideally she thought it would miss them both, but she wasn't that lucky and the blast caught her square in the right shoulder blade. The man in the stands took aim again, but Buffy took aim with Warric's blaster and took him down before he got another shot off. The man with the beard looked over at her in surprise. Then everything grew quiet around them, no sound of blasters, or swishing of glowing swords. There weren't many of them left, but Buffy took pride in noticing that the three who started out chained to the pillars were all still there. The pain in her shoulder was intense and Buffy could feel the pain try and take over her body, but she fought it off trying to see what was happening. Just when she thought it was all over a ship of some sort, it reminded her of a big military helicopter, dropped out of the sky and men in what looked to be armor made of PVC pipe jumped out and started attacking the droids. Then another ship joined that one, and then yet another. Soon the people with the glowing swords were running toward the ships. She saw the bearded man and the bald man talking, she couldn't make out everything they were saying, but the bald man said something about leaving someone, but the bearded man said something about saving lives and hurt. The next thing she knew the bearded man was by her side helping her up.

"Be still, we'll get you help." He then picked her up and carried her to one of the ships. Then she blacked out.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer – I own neither the rights to the Star Wars Universe nor the Buffy Universe, because if I did I'd be really rich and buy a tropical island and never leave the beach.

Inevitable

Sometimes bad things happen no matter how hard you try to stop them.

Chapter 2

Buffy came to when she felt herself falling, flashbacks rushed at her from her fall into this dimension, but when she opened her eyes she could see the ship above her, somehow she had fallen off the ship, she hit the sand dune with a thump. She laid there as the stars danced in front of her eyes. Then she heard a noise beside her, the girl from the stone pillar had evidently been thrown from the ship as well, along with one of the guys in the PVC armor. The girl walked over to her. "Are you okay?"

All Buffy could do was wince in pain. The man in the PVC armor had some sort of walkie talkie; she could hear him telling someone to come get them. With that knowledge she blacked out again.

She was told later that it was 3 days before she woke up again. The first thing she noticed was that the collar from around her neck was gone. Her right arm was strapped down across her stomach, so she lifted her left hand to her neck, she could feel the scar tissue that had formed from the electrical burns the collar had caused.

A medical droid popped up. "You will always have scars, but your shoulder should mend just fine."

"Great, so when can I leave?" Even in this world she didn't like hospitals.

The droid repeated. "You will always have scars but your shoulder should mend just fine."

Obviously the droid wasn't programmed to answer her question. Once the droid finally left her alone, she decided to take a look around. She found a robe and put her good arm through it and draped the other side over her injured shoulder. She forgot how difficult it was to get by with just one arm, it reminded her of when her shoulder was dislocated her freshman year in college. She walked through a glass door that automatically opened for her and into the hallway; she saw a whole hallway of doors just like hers.

She was stopped almost immediately by a droid. "You shouldn't be out of bed."

She just ignored it and walked away, the droid must not have been programmed to deal with people who didn't comply so it just continued on its way. She walked to the end of the end of the hallway and her breath was taken away by the sight in front of her. It was a wall of windows. The world outside was amazing. She was pretty sure she was no longer on Geonosis. This place was a land of skyscrapers, beautiful shiny tall buildings, with ships whizzing around them. She wasn't sure how long she had stood there when she felt someone walking up behind her; somehow she knew who it was. The bearded man stopped beside her. "I stopped by your room to check on you."

"I wasn't there."

The man gave her a confused look.

"Yes, so it would seem. How are you feeling?"

"Great, you?"

"I'm fine thank you. My name is Obi-Wan Kenobi, I wanted to thank you for helping us."

"Sure no problem" She continued to stare out the window.

"I hope you don't mind me asking, who are you?"

Buffy continued to look out the window for another minute, and then finally turned to look at him. She saw that he had a bandaged cut on his forehead, and she could see some bruising around his hairline. She was trying to remember if he had the injuries when she last saw him, or if his fight had continued after she blacked out. "My name is Buffy."

Obi Wan waited for more, when it didn't come he asked, "But who are you?"

Buffy was tempted to say 'I'm Buffy the Vampire Slayer, from Sunnydale California. Have you ever heard of it?' Instead she just said "That's a loaded question."

Obi Wan looked at her funny again. "Loaded?" He questioned.

Buffy realized that he didn't understand the phrase. "Let's just say that it's the type of question that could get you a lot more than you really wanted to know."

He was silent for a moment. "Alright, then I'll start smaller. I don't believe you were always a slave, because most slaves raised that way don't require collars because they've been broken when they were young. So I was wondering, how long were you a slave?"

Buffy's hand flew to the scar tissue at her throat. She thought to herself, how long? Six months maybe, was that all? How did time pass here? Would he understand what a month was?

Obi Wan watch as Buffy struggled for an answer.

"Not very long," She finally replied.

"So you were a warrior before you were a slave?" He asked.

"Practically all my life."

"Where did you train, where are you from?" Obi Wan continued to question.

Buffy exhaled loudly. She looked over at the man she was still thinking of as the 'bearded man', anything she said would make him think she was completely insane. She saw an eyelash on his cheek and reached out and brushed it onto her finger. She held it in front of him, "If I told you to make a wish you probably wouldn't know what I'm talking about, right?"

Obi Wan was in shock, this girl had touched him. He couldn't remember the last time a girl had touched him. And now she was telling him to make a wish.

Buffy broke eye contact, she could see that he was uncomfortable with the contact. "Sorry." She said and turned away. "I'm going to go back to my room now."

She turned toward her room, and saw the younger guy from the stone pillar walking toward her. He was dressed in similar garb as her, and his arm was in a sort of sling.

He greeted Obi Wan first "Master" then he addressed Buffy, "So, the mystery girl has awaken.'

Buffy's head swung around to Obi Wan so fast you would've thought she'd have gotten whiplash. The bearded man was the boy's Master, the boy was a slave?

"You're a slaver? What were you checking me out because I'm yours now? Well forget that, I will not be owned by anyone again." Buffy took off down the hallway.

Obi Wan was in shock, so much so that he couldn't even react to the girl berating him. Anakin looked at him. "What was that about?"

"I'm not sure; I think she thinks you're my slave."

"What? Why?"

"You called me master."

Anakin, who had grown up as a slave until he was rescued by Qui Gon, had never called one of his owners master, but he did recall a few of the slaves he had know who did.

"I think she thought I was going to be her new owner." Obi Wan continued.

"Shouldn't you go after her?" Anakin asked.

"I'm not sure that would be a good idea. She thinks I'm the enemy, she's not going to believe a word I say."

"If you use the force she will." Anakin pointed out.

"Why don't you try talking to her first? She would believe you if you tell her you're not a slave."

Anakin shrugged his shoulders. "I can try."

He turned to follow in the direction Buffy had run off. Obi Wan called after him. "Anakin how is your hand?"

Anakin lifted his arm out of his sling, showing his newly acquired robotic arm. "It's pretty good; they said I can start training with my light saber again."

Anakin used the force to find Buffy; she was in a lounge of some sort two floors down from her room. She had tears streaming down her face. When she saw Anakin come in she shook her head at him. "I can't do it anymore, I can't live that life."

"I know what you mean. I used to be a slave, until I was nine. My name is Anakin by the way."

Buffy looked up and the tall young man in front of her. "Used to be?"

"Yes, Obi Wan isn't my owner, but he is my master, we're Jedi."

Buffy just looked at him as if he was speaking a different language. "What is Jedi?"

"You don't know what a Jedi is?"

"Obviously." Buffy replied sarcastically.

"The Jedi are the defenders of the Republic."

"Oh yeah, that clears it up."

"You're not from around here are you?"

"Not even remotely. So that Odie guy isn't your owner?"

"No."

"Boy do I feel stupid."

"It's okay you didn't know. So where are you from?" Anakin asked

"A place far, far away I think. I kind of landed here accidentally. I believe I'm in a different dimension from my planet. Speaking of planet, which planet are we on, it's not Geonosis."

"You're right we're on Coruscant ."

"Croissant?"

"No Coruscant ."

"Oh." Buffy didn't know what else to say. She looked up Anakin and noticed his robotic hand. "What happened to your hand?"

"Count Dooku cut it off?"

Buffy's blood chilled at just the mention of Count Dooku. "Please tell me you killed him for it. That guy gives me the major wiggins."

Anakin looked away. "He got away. What are wiggins?"

"Um, wiggins are like bad vibes, feelings you know. I could feel the evil radiating off him."

Anakin looked at her oddly. "You could feel him?"

"Yeah, it's weird I could feel him, and actually I could feel you and Opie too."

"Opie? Oh you mean Obi Wan? Feel us how?"

Buffy made a note to herself, that it was Obi not Opie, hoping not to embarrass herself when she saw Obi Wan again. "Well, just as I can feel power and darkness from Count Dooku, I can feel power and Light coming from the two of you. Is that because you're a Yeti?"

"Jedi, we're Jedi, what's a Yeti?" Anakin smiled.

Buffy racked her brain, what was a yeti; she knew she had seen it on something before. "Oh yeah, a Yeti is a mythical monster in my world. We also call it the Abominable Snowman.'

At that Anakin laughed. "So what is your name?"

"Sorry, I'm Buffy, Buffy Summers." She shook his good hand with her good hand; it was odd shaking with her left hand. "So does your master think I'm a crazy person for ranting at him and then running off?"

"No, I think he felt bad for not getting to explain it to you, but he was afraid you wouldn't believe him."

"He's probably right."

"Can I ask, what were you going to do if he was going to be your new owner?"

Buffy sat there quietly for a moment, Anakin could feel her mood shift.

"I'll just say that I won't live that way again, so if I couldn't have found a way to escape there was only one other option."

Anakin sat down next to her and put a consoling hand on her knee. "We'll at least you don't have to worry about that now. So what will you do now that you're free?"

"I don't know. I don't know anything about this world; I don't know how I'll survive here. The only thing I know how to do well is fight, but I won't fight like Warric was making me." Buffy felt a new presence in the room and looked up to see Opie, no Obi Wan standing by the door way. "Hey, sorry for freaking out on you back there." She apologized, and looked at her feet and started picking at an imaginary thread on her pant leg.

Obi Wan walked toward her and sat down in a chair across from her. "Was Warric your owner?"

"Yes" Buffy refused to look up from her leg.

"And did you learn to fight from him?"

"No, I fought in my own world, but it was different."

"Different how?"

Buffy started to get exasperated. How could she explain it to someone who didn't know even the folklore of vampires and demons? "Just different, it wasn't sport; it was a calling, me against the bad guys."

"And who were the bad guys?" Anakin interjected.

Buffy stood up quickly. "You know what; I'm kind of tired, I'm going to go back to my room."

Anakin and Obi Wan were both on their feet immediately. Obi Wan waved his hand at her and said "You're not tired; you want to tell us about your past."

Buffy stopped for a moment. Something inside her was screaming at her to agree with him, but she fought it. "No really, I'm going to my room." And she stormed out of the lounge.

Anakin and Obi Wan just looked at each other.

Buffy walked back to her room, and saw the girl from the arena coming out of her room.

"Hi"

"Hello, I just wanted to check in and see how you were. I'm happy to see that you're awake. My name is Padme."

"I'm Buffy."

"How are you feeling?"

"I'm okay. You look like you emerged relatively unscathed."

Buffy thought Padme looked a bit distracted. "Um, yes I was one of the lucky ones."

Padme was looking down the hallway as if she was looking for someone.

"If you're looking for Anakin he's in the lounge 2 floors down, or at least he was a moment ago."

Padme looked startled. "Anakin, why would I be looking for him?"

Buffy almost laughed out loud, but didn't want to be impolite. "Oh no reason, I just thought maybe you were looking for him. You seemed 'close' in the arena."

Padme blushed, but tried to deny it. "We're not… I mean.. we can't, he's a Jedi, and I'm a senator."

"You're a senator?" Buffy asked.

"Yes"

"Wow, where I come from even the youngest senator is pretty old."

"Yes I was elected senator when my term as queen was over."

"Queen? You were a queen? Wait, your term as queen was over, the queen is elected?"

"Padme looked at her confusedly. "Yes, why is it not that way where you're from?"

"No, titles like queen run in a family, they aren't elected."

Padme and Buffy looked at each other for a moment, and then Padme's attention was pulled to the hallway again. Anakin was walking toward them.

Buffy grew uncomfortable not only because she had walked out on Anakin and Obi-Wan, but also because of the look that passed between Anakin and Padme.

Buffy excused herself and went into her room.

A few days later Buffy's arm was unwrapped. Everyone was surprised at how quickly it had healed. Buffy had convinced the medical staff to take her bandages off early explaining that she was a quick healer, and they saw that she was right. They also agreed that she'd be released the next day. Buffy felt lighter knowing she'd be released soon, although she still had no idea what she was going to do She decided to try and clear her mind by getting a work out in. She found an outdoor patio that had plenty of room for her to move around on. She pushed herself as hard as she could, and then cooled down with the Tai Chi routine that Angel had taught her. It was amazing how Tai Chi had the ability to calm her mind and her body.

Obi-Wan stood watching Buffy working out. He couldn't help but be in awe of her fluidity as she moved. He had seen Jedi move this way, but there was something different about Buffy, and of course there was the fact that she wasn't a Jedi.

Buffy finished her routine and felt better than she had since coming to this dimension. She toweled off and walked toward her room she was surprised to see Obi-Wan waiting for her in the hallway.

"I see your shoulder is better." He noted.

"Yeah I heal fast." Buffy was a bit uncomfortable she hadn't really talked to Obi-wan or Anakin since she walked out on them.

"Are they releasing you soon?" He asked.

Buffy stopped walking and looked at him. "I have the feeling you already know the answer to that, let's not play games."

Obi-Wan was a bit shocked to be put on the spot like that. "You are right, I do know, but if you want to not play games then maybe we should talk about what happened the other day." He looked at her pointedly.

Buffy's shoulders slumped forward. "You know what, you're right. No more games. Why don't you come by my room in a little bit, I want to shower and change first."

Obi-Wan was a little shocked that she had agreed so easily to the request. When he showed up at her room, she was sitting on her bed combing through her wet hair.

"Have a seat." She told him.

He pulled a chair over by the bed and Buffy told him her story. She explained that there were things called vampires in her world, and that she was the chosen one to destroy them, she told him about how the master had killed her, but how Xander had brought her back, she talked about Angel, and how she had sent him to hell and she had run away. She told him about Dawn being sent to her, and about her mom dying, and then finally of her arrival in this dimension, and what had happened since she had gotten here.

When she finished Obi-Wan just looked at her taking in what she had said. He knew what she said was crazy, but he had no doubt that she was telling the truth and completely sane.

Buffy watched for his reaction, which she found hard to read.

"Hmm." He said. "So what do you plan to do now? "

"I have no idea."

"Do you have any idea of how to get back to your dimension?"

"Nope, I was never good with that stuff, that was Giles and Willow's area."

"Giles was the watcher and Willow the witch, right?"

"That's right"

"Would you want to go back? It sounds like everyone you had there is gone."

Buffy's chest tightened at the thought, he was right she was alone, whether in this dimension or her own. Truthfully she hadn't thought about being able to go back. "I hadn't really thought about it, because I didn't think it would be an option to go home."

"I'd like you to speak to the Jedi Council. I'm not sure they can get you home, but if anyone has that knowledge they would. Is that alright with you?"

"Yeah, sure."

They both were sitting there quietly not sure what else to say, when Anakin and an older man walked into her room. Anakin greeted Obi-Wan first, who immediately got to his feet when he saw that Anakin wasn't alone. Buffy followed suit and got to her feet as well.

"Chancellor Palpatine, greetings." He greeted the man.

"Chancellor, I'd like you introduce you to Buffy Summers, she helped us on Geonosis."

The Chancellor seemed to glide toward Buffy. "My dear, I'm so pleased to meet you. Anakin has been telling me of how you saved him on Geonosis. I understand you're quite a warrior. On behalf of the Republic I thank you."

He reached for her hand and brought it to his lips.

Buffy cringed, something about this man screamed out at her, but Anakin and Obi-Wan didn't seem to feel it.

"Um thank you sir. What's the Republic?"

The Chancellor seemed to be taken aback, and she saw Obi-Wan close his eyes and shake his head. He spoke up to explain.

"Chancellor, Buffy just finished explaining to me that she grew up in a different dimension, there was an accident and she end up on a planet in our dimension, from her description I think it was Mustafar. It was there that the slavers found her."

The Chancellor took another step toward her. "Really, that's fascinating.'

Buffy tried to take a step away, but there was no where to go.

The Chancellor continued. "The Republic is the governing body of over 1000 planets, and I am the Chancellor which means I mediate the meetings of the senators."

I light bulb went off in her head. "Oh, hey, senator, that's what Padme is right?"

"Yes, Padme is a Senator from her planet of Naboo. And Obi-Wan and Anakin are Jedi Knights who help keep peace across the Republic. What do you plan to do when you're released from here?"

Buffy looked at the floor and wrapped her arms around herself defensively. "I don't know."

Obi-Wan took a step forward. "I've asked her to meet with the council to see if they'll be able to help her."

"Yes, yes, that's a good place to start." He said. "Perhaps if they are unable to help you you'll come to see me. I'm sure we'll be able to find something for you to do that uses your unique abilities?"

Buffy looked at him questioningly

"I'm referring to your fighting abilities of course. Perhaps you can work as a bodyguard for the senate."

"Thank you, I'll keep that in mind."

The Chancellor slightly bowed to Buffy and said "It was lovely to have met you." And then he swept out of the room with his cloak billowing behind him, Anakin following close behind.

Buffy shook herself as if trying to rid herself of the evil that she had felt wash over her with the Chancellor near by. She saw Obi-Wan observe her behavior and raise an eyebrow at her.

"What?" She asked. "Don't you feel it? That guy is evil."

"Evil? The Chancellor?"

"Yes."

"You must be mistaken; the Chancellor works tirelessly to keep the Republic together."

"Whatever, I'm just telling you what I felt."

There was an awkward silence that followed.

"Well, I'm expected at the council. I'll arrange to bring you there tomorrow after you're released."

He bowed and left.

The next day a droid delivered a package with a note from Padme. It was a dress. It was gorgeous. The note said that she hoped she liked it and thought she'd prefer it to the hospital garb she'd been wearing.

Buffy put the dress, or more appropriately gown, on. It was royal blue with a plunging neck line, but it had a sash that she could wear draped across her throat to hide her scars. With it on she felt the need to do her hair as well. She pulled back the front and let the back fall in soft curls. She had just finished when the door to her room opened.

Obi-Wan and Anakin walked in, but stopped abruptly when they saw her. They didn't say a word, they just looked at her. She started to feel uneasy.

"What is something wrong, did I put the dress on wrong? Is there something in my teeth?"

Obi-Wan finally snapped out of it. "No, no it's just you look … um different."

"Different?'

"I mean you look nice." He clarified.

Anakin finally snapped out of his trance as well. "You look beautiful."

Buffy blushed. "Thank you. Padme sent it over for me."

Obi-Wan and Anakin continued to stare for another moment, and then finally Obi-Wan said. "The Council is expecting you."

"Well I guess we should be going then." Buffy smirked and walked by them, and out of her room.

They quickly caught up with her, and led her out of the hospital and to a waiting speeder. The trip to see the Jedi Council was very surreal for Buffy, here she was flying through the air, with speeders whizzing all around her. When they had finally arrived at what Obi-Wan called the Jedi Temple she felt like kissing the ground. She stepped out of the speeder and felt her legs nearly give way, Obi-Wan grabbed her arm to steady her.

"Are you okay."

"Um, yeah, is riding in one of those things always like that?"

Obi-Wan smiled. "Perhaps I shouldn't have let Anakin drive for your first time. He has a tendency to push the limits."

Anakin looked over at her sheepishly and said, "Sorry Buffy."

"It's okay, it's just I'm not used to flying like that. In my dimensions when you fly it's surrounded by tons of steel, not out in the open like that, or with so many other vehicles in the air with you.

Obi-Wan and Anakin led Buffy to the Council's meeting room. She saw a number of kids dressed like Anakin and Obi-Wan, the clothes reminded her of what kids in her world wore when taking martial arts. Obi-Wan saw her looking at the children.

"Those are younglings. They are learning to be Jedi, but are not yet old enough to have been taken on as a Padawan like Anakin here."

They arrived at the Council's meeting room, and Buffy couldn't help but feel nervous. If they could help her get home, what then? And what if they couldn't? What would she do if she had to stay here? She thought about what the Chancellor had said about her working for the Senate as a bodyguard. She wondered if that was going to be her only option.

Obi-Wan turned to her. "Wait here; I'll announce your presence." He noticed her nervousness. "Don't worry; there is nothing to be nervous about."

"Yeah, that's easy for you to say." Buffy said under her breath.

Obi-Wan entered the room, leaving Anakin and Buffy alone. "He's right you know." Anakin said. "There really is nothing to worry about."

Buffy inhaled deeply and then exhaled, trying to calm herself. "It's just I haven't had a whole lotta luck with council's in the past." She thought about the watchers council, and that poor excuse of a man who led them, Quentin Travers.

The door to the meeting room opened again and Obi-Wan motioned for her to enter. Anakin followed her in.

Buffy followed Obi-Wan to the middle of the room, which was in the center of a circle 12 chairs. Each chair was different and seemed to be designed with the occupant in mind, and since it seemed that each occupant was a different size and shape the chairs were all very different. She noticed that some of the chairs looked to be filled with a hologram image instead of an actual body. She thought of Xander and how proud he would be of her for realizing they were holograms. Everything she knew about Sci-Fi stuff came from Xander, and then she grew sad thinking about how much he would've loved this place.

"Why sad you are?" A little green thing said.

"Huh?" Buffy didn't understand what he said.

"Why sad you are? Miss your friends you do."

Finally she realized what he was saying. "Um, yes I do."

"Master Yoda am I. Welcome you to the council I do."

"Thank you." Buffy scanned the room again, and this time her eyes fell on the tall black man she remembered from the arena on Geonosis.

"Ah. Already met Master Windu you have." Yoda said.

"Well I don't know if met is the right word, but I have seen him before. I believe he wanted to leave me behind in the arena."

She saw Master Windu stiffen at her words, and the room around her started to buzz at the attitude in her voice.

"You're right" Master Windu spoke up. "We didn't know anything about you, and there was a battle going on."

"Yes, well thanks so much for giving me the benefit of the doubt." She retorted. She looked over and saw Anakin giving Obi-Wan a worried look.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't be rude." Buffy apologized.

"Obi-Wan has told us of your story and how you claim to have come here." Master Windu continued.

Boy this guy was really pushing her buttons, Buffy thought. "And what do you think about my claims?" She asked somewhat snottily.

Yoda spoke up this time. "Unprecedented it is."

"So you don't believe me then?"

"We didn't say that." The Jedi to the right of Yoda said.

"We would like you to tell us your story, rather than hearing it second hand from Master Obi-Wan. Then we will come to a decision about you." The one named Windu said.

Buffy's blood began to boil. It was like the Watcher's Council all over again, when they came to give her information on the Key, but first they wanted her to jump through hoops. "You know what. Don't do me any favors. It doesn't matter if you believe me or not. Like you said it's unprecedented. I've been under the thumb of a council in my world to, and I'm going to do the same thing to you that I did to them." With that she turned on her heel and stormed out of the room.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer – I own neither the rights to the Star Wars Universe nor the Buffy Universe, because if I did I'd be really rich and buy a tropical island and never leave the beach.

Inevitable

Sometimes bad things happen no matter how hard you try to stop them.

Chapter 3

Buffy stormed through the temple and walked by group of younglings, this group was a bit older than the group she saw before, and therefore seemed to be more in tuned to the force, so they felt her coming scattered out of her way. She heard one of them ask their teacher. "Who is she, and why is she so angry?"

She didn't even slow down to hear what kind of answer the teacher came up with.

She found the door to the outside she and Obi-Wan and Anakin had come through. She found a PVC soldier as she had taken to calling them outside and asked. "Could you tell me the best way to get to the senate building?"

"Yes ma'am the transport in bay 2 is leaving any minute. The first stop is the senate."

"Thank you."

She wasn't sure if they would expect payment for the ride, she had no money, heck, she didn't even know what their money looked like. She approached bay 2 and was greeted by the site of more PVC soldiers, although they didn't seem to pay her any mind as she walked toward the ship. A teenage boy was collecting what he called Credits from the passengers as they boarded.

When it was her turn she said "Hi."

He looked up at her and gulped. "Um… Hi."

"Listen I don't know if you can help me out. I need to get to the Senate building I'm supposed to be meeting a friend of mine who is a senator, but I seem to not have any credits on me. Is there anything you can do to help?"

She laid her hand gently on his arm and tried to look helpless. The boy's mouth had dropped open. "Um, sure go ahead in."

Buffy squeezed his arm slightly. "Thank you're sweet." Then she kissed him on the cheek and boarded the ship.

The trip to the senate building didn't take very long. The boy, who had let her on the ship, helped her off. She could still feel his eyes on her as she walked up the steps to the Senate building.

Again PVC soldiers where everywhere, but these also just let her pass without much notice.

Now that she had gotten there she wasn't sure what to do. She assumed she couldn't just ask to see the Chancellor, but maybe she could see Padme, who could tell her how to see the Chancellor. She was lucky enough to find a directory of sorts on the wall that said where the different planets locations were in senate hall. She found Padme's planet of Naboo, and headed off to find her.

She found the entrance and scanned what looked to be flying saucers sticking out of the wall. Padme wasn't alone in the pod, there was a very strange looking character with long floppy ears sitting next to her. She looked out into the middle of the hall, and saw the Chancellor in a similar looking pod in the very center. He seemed to be giving a speech about the war with the separatists, but she couldn't quite catch everything he was saying.

All of a sudden there was a man standing beside her. He was older, but good looking. He had dark hair and a goatee.

"Are you supposed to be here?" He asked.

"Not exactly, I was looking for Padme, but I didn't want to bother her while he's talking."

"Is she expecting you?"

"Again, not exactly, but I need her help."

"With what?"

"With something she can help me with obviously."

The man grinned slightly, at her answer. "I'm sure she won't mind missing out on some of the Chancellor's speech, come." He motioned for her to follow him into the pod.

"Senator Amidala, someone is here to see you."

Padme lifted he head from her hand where she had propped herself up to try and keep from falling asleep during the Chancellor's long winded address.

Her eyes lit up. "Buffy, what are you doing here? The dress looks wonderful on you. Do you like it? Wait, aren't you supposed to be meeting with the Jedi Council right now?"

"I'm not going to answer those in order, okay? The dress is great, thank you so much. The meeting with the council didn't go so well, so I was hoping you could help me get a meeting with the Chancellor. He mentioned maybe there would be a job for me as a bodyguard or something. If I'm going to be stuck in this dimension then I need to find something to do to make a living."

The tall man that had ushered her in looked at her oddly. "This dimension?" He questioned.

Padme jumped in. "Senator Bail Organa, I'm sorry I didn't introduce you yet. This is Buffy the one who helped save me on Geonosis."

He took Buffy's hand and brought it to his lips. "The Republic is very grateful to you." Buffy nearly swooned, the man was pure charm.

"It was nothing really." She said sheepishly.

"I have a meeting with the Chancellor as soon as today's session is over, you'll come with me, I'm sure he'll be pleased to see you."

"Thank you Padme."

Padme, Senator Organa, and Buffy all took seats to wait until the session was over. Buffy grew bored, and soon saw that she wasn't the only one, she could see that a number of the senators had fallen asleep.

Padme leaned over to her. "Does Anakin know you're here?"

"Nope, I kind of walked out on my meeting, I have no idea where Anakin or Obi-Wan are."

Padme frowned, but didn't say anything more because they realized the Chancellor had stopped speaking for a moment. He then said. "With that said, it seems like this war will continue until the separatists surrender, there will be no negotiations."

There was thunderous applause from many of the senators, although Padme and Senator Organa seemed rather subdued about it. Buffy wanted to ask, what was up, but the Chancellor put his hands up to stop the applause.

"I believe that we've accomplished all we can for today. The senate is adjourned."

Buffy caught a look between Padme and Senator Organa, it looked as if they weren't pleased with the outcome of the session.

Buffy watched as the pod thing that the Chancellor was in lowered down unto a space in the floor.

Padme, Senator Organa, and Buffy all stood along with the other creature that was in the pod.

"Ladies, I must take my leave of you." The handsome Senator said and swept out into the hallway.

Buffy watched him go appreciatively. Padme laughed beside her. "Just so you know he's married."

Buffy blushed at being so obvious. "Well it doesn't mean don't look, it just means don't touch

."

Padme laughed again, and then introduced her to the floppy eared creature. "Buffy, this is Jar Jar Binks, he is the other Senator from Naboo. Jar Jar, this is the girl Buffy I was telling you about the one who saved Ani, Obi-Wan and me on Genosis."

Buffy's hand was grabbed abruptly by the creature and shaken up and down vigorously. "Mesa soo happy to meet you."

Buffy extracted her hand before he shook her arm off. Although her shoulder was mostly healed, a vigorous shaking was not going to do her any favors. "Yeah likewise." She responded.

"Come." Padme said. "We've our meeting with the Chancellor and I'll ask him to make some time to see you."

The trio walked through the halls winding their way around to the Chancellor's office. Buffy waited outside while Padme and Jar Jar went in for their meeting. After a little while Padme and Jar Jar came out. Padme didn't look especially happy, but plastered a fake smile on her face and told Buffy that the Chancellor would see her now.

She entered the room and found the Chancellor gliding towards her; he took her hand in his and led her to a chair. Again she was struck by the evil vibe she got off of him. "My My, don't you look wonderful? It is so good to see you again, and so soon. I take it that you've already met with the Council?"

Buffy took the seat he offered her and watched as the Chancellor settled into his chair behind his desk. "Um, sort of. Let's just say it didn't go as I had hoped it would."

"Ah, I think I know what you mean, sometimes they can seem a bit self important can't they?"

Buffy was uncomfortable at the comment coming from the Chancellor, but couldn't argue with what he said. "I guess you could say that."

"So, now you've come to see me."

"Yes, it seems that I'm kind of stuck here in this dimension, and I don't know anyone, and the only skill I have is fighting, and you mentioned you might know a place for me working as a bodyguard or something like that for the Republic."

"Yes, Yes of course. I think you will be well suited for the work. With this war going on, everyone is in danger, but the Senators most of all. And I know exactly what your first assignment will be. Senator Amadale needs to go back to Naboo for a little while, I'd like you to accompany her and keep her safe. Why don't you go ask the Senator to join us? I asked her to wait outside for you."

Buffy went and got Padme, and the Chancellor filled her in on his plan. Buffy could see the Padme was a little put out at getting more security, but she didn't say anything.

After they left the Chancellor, a Senate Security Officer, Captain Tillman came to take her to get issued a weapon and a uniform. Padme told her she'd help her get some other clothes later. Once she had her uniform on, consisting of pants, a long sleeved shirt, a vest and boots , which in all truth was much more comfortable than the gown she had been wearing she was given a ride over to the Senator's Apartment so she could meet back up with Padme.

As she entered Padme's apartment she was greeted by the site of Padme and Anakin talking very close together. They separated as soon as she entered. She still didn't quite understand why they tried to hide their attraction for each other.

Anakin approached her. "Obi-Wan and I were worried about you. We didn't know where you had gone to. Padme was just filling me in on your new job."

"Sorry, I didn't mean to worry you. Padme, when do we leave for Naboo?"

"Soon, I just need to finish packing. Anakin is coming with us."

They both saw the questioning look Buffy gave them. If she had a Jedi as I protector then why had Buffy been assigned to her?

Anakin answered her unspoken question. "The council wants to make sure Padme arrives safely, I won't be able to stay."

Buffy nodded her head in understanding.

Soon they left for Padme's ship. Obi-Wan was there to see them off. He approached Buffy. She spoke before he could. "I'm sorry for running off earlier. I just couldn't deal with having a group of people trying to control me like that. Like if I didn't do or say what they wanted they wouldn't give me the information I needed. Thank you for trying to help me. I do appreciate it."

Obi-Wan wasn't sure what to say. He felt it was very immature of her to storm out on the council the way she did, but he understood that she was dealing with a lot of stuff right now, and didn't know what normal behavior was in her dimension.

"Yes well, some members of the council were very sad at the way the meeting went today. They had hoped that you would reconsider coming to talk to them, but I can see that won't be able to happen now. Maybe the next time you're on Coruscant it can be arranged."

"Yeah, maybe…. Good bye." Buffy turned to board the ship.

"Good bye Buffy, we shall meet again."

She looked back and him and gave him a small smile, and continued up the ramp.

The ship was very neat Buffy thought. It was her first space flight she remembered. The first time of course she remembered, but at the time she didn't know she was traveling through space, the second time, she was unconscious. So this was a definite improvement. She found Padme in her bedroom.

Padme asked. "Did you find your room?"

"Yup, and I'm already unpacked. It consisted of hanging up the gown you gave me." Buffy smiled at Padme who was surrounded by trunks of clothes.

Padme smiled back. "We'll get you some more clothes and things on Naboo."

"Padme? Can I ask you a question?"

"Of course."

"Why do you and Anakin have to be secret about the fact that you're in love?"

Padme dropped the bottle she was holding; luckily Buffy was close enough to catch it before it shattered. "What do you mean?"

"I can see how you feel about each other just by the way you look and act around each other. I was just wondering if there is a reason you deny it in front of people."

Padme signed and sat on the corner of the bed. "Jedi aren't allowed to have emotional attachments. It's against their code. If the council found out about us he would be expelled from the order?"

"Expelled? For falling in love, that's ridiculous."

"Not to them, it's been this way for as long as anyone alive remembers."

"But I don't understand why they think love or emotion for that matter is a bad thing. I use my emotions when I fight to help me. It helps me to know that there is a reason to keep trying even if the odds are against me, because there are people out there that care about me and that I care about, or at least there was in my dimension." Buffy grew sad at the thought of all her loved ones who were gone.

"I'm sorry you've lost everyone Buffy."

"It's okay, we were supposed to be talking about you anyway."

"Can I tell you a secret?"

"Sure"

"Anakin and I are getting married when we get to Naboo, but no one can know about it, we must keep it secret from everyone, even Obi-Wan."

"That's great, I'm so happy for you. I'm just sorry that you can't share it with everyone."

"Me too."

Their travel to Naboo was thankfully uneventful. Padme let Anakin know that she had let Buffy in on their secret nuptials. He seemed hesitant at first about this, but then decided that it was nice to have someone else in on it. They asked Buffy to be a witness for them when they got to the lake country.

Buffy thought Padme was the most beautiful bride she had ever seen. But there was a hint of sadness in the air at the secretness of the event.

Unfortunately for the newlyweds Anakin had to leave just a day after the ceremony. Padme tried not to think about it by throwing herself into getting Buffy settled in. They went shopping and she worked on educating Buffy about the world that was now her home.

Buffy loved the lake country it was quiet and beautiful, and although it was peaceful, she could never sleep through the night. For that matter she hadn't really slept though the night since she came to this world other than when she was unconscious due to injury. So at night when a particularly bad dream would wake her, she started to go out to the beach and meditate or do her Tai Chi routine. It would calm and center her, and even if she was unable to go back to sleep, it gave her the strength to get through the next day. It did not however stop the dark circles from forming under her eyes.

About two weeks after they arrived on Naboo, Padme commented to Buffy about it. "You need to get more rest."

"I'm fine."

'I don't think you are. The first time I brought Anakin here he wasn't able to sleep either he was having horrible dreams about his mother. We ended up going to his home planet, and found out she had been kidnapped. He went to find her, but unfortunately she died right after he found her, it was as if she was just hanging on to see him one last time and then she just let go."

"The problem is that dreams I'm having aren't prophetic. They are things that have come to pass, I can't change them. I can't stop everyone I've ever loved from dying. I can't stop the things that Warric did to me or made me do when I was his slave. I can't change any of that. And I'm trying to move past it, but it's still there in my head."

Just then Padme's niece ran in saving Buffy from having to go further down the road the conversation was going. The girl said that there was a communication coming in for Padme from the Senate.

Padme followed her out, but turned to give Buffy as smile of encouragement.

The communication from the Senate was to let Padme know that a special session was being called to order to discuss the war, and that she was needed back on Coruscant . They started preparing immediately to leave.

As they arrived at the launch pad to leave Naboo, Buffy got a feeling that something wasn't right. She signaled for the group to stop and then scanned the area around them, but didn't see anything, so they started moving again, then all of a sudden she stopped again. Something was definitely wrong. She looked around again, this time she saw a glint of sunlight off of something metal. She pushed Padme down to the ground and drew her blaster in one movement. She brought down the assassin with one shot from her blaster, but not before they got one shot off from their weapon as well, luckily Buffy had seen the assassin early enough that they were able to get clear of the shot. The Republic guards rushed in and hurried everyone onto the ship; they said they'd take care of the assassin.

They arrived on Coruscant and found Obi-Wan and Anakin waiting at the landing pad. Buffy could see the fear in Anakin's eyes. They must have heard about the attempt on Padme's life.

"We are glad to see you safe." Obi-Wan spoke. "We heard about your troubles leaving Naboo."

"No troubles really. Buffy took care of it, it was amazing, it was like she sensed something was wrong. Kind of like the way you do." Padme observed.

Buffy spoke up before anything more was said. "We should get indoors; I don't want Padme out in the open here for too long."


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer – I own neither the rights to the Star Wars Universe nor the Buffy Universe, because if I did I'd be really rich and buy a tropical island and never leave the beach.

Inevitable

Sometimes bad things happen no matter how hard you try to stop them.

Chapter 4

A particularly strong gust of wind outside Buffy's shelter pulled her out of her memories. So many things had happened since then. Her time working for Padme had been short lived; as soon as they had arrived back on Coruscant she had been reassigned. She had only seen Padme in passing since then. She did seem to run in to Obi-Wan more than anyone. They had formed a sort of friendship, and he had finally convinced her to meet with the Jedi Counsel again. She was supposed to have met with them the last time she was on Coruscant , but the war had spread them across the galaxy and a meeting was currently impossible. The wind howled again, she couldn't wait until the storm lifted then she could finally end this fact finding mission and go back to Coruscant .

Her trip to Tatoonie had been a bust; there had been no sign of a droid army, although she had run into a number of other undesirable groups. There was a particularly nasty group of sand people that had attacked the group, but they were easily scared off.

When the sandstorm had finally died down to a dull roar Buffy ventured outside, to check if any communications had made it through yet. They had been waiting for orders for a few days now, they were having trouble getting clear messages with the storm raging across what seemed to be the whole planet.

Buffy greeted the clones in the communications tent and asked if anything had come in. TK 312 replied, "Yes, Captain Summers, but we're not sure what to make of it, it's pretty garbled. TK 315 is working on cleaning up the sound to see if we can make it out."

"Play it back for me." Buffy ordered.

A grainy image appeared before her it took but a second to recognize Obi-Wan. The sound cut in and out, but she caught the gist of the message. He was heading to the outer rim and wanted them to rendezvous with him. Unfortunately she couldn't make out the coordinates of the rendezvous, but she did catch the planet's name.

She turned to TK 312 and said "Pack it up boys we're heading to Utapau"

The unit that had been sitting idle for too long was more than happy to have something to do. They had the camp packed up in record time. It was rough exiting the planet's atmosphere with the storm still raging, but nobody minded because they had a mission again. Once in the openness of space they were able to receive Obi-Wan's full transmission and plotted their course to the Outer moon of Utapau.

Being closer, they arrived shortly before Obi-Wan, who docked with them immediately. Buffy greeted him. "General" she said with a nod, she noticed that he had aged in the few months it had been since she had last seen him. He looked tired, of course she was sure she didn't look so hot either having just spent the better part of a month on a desert planet.

He bowed slightly and smiled although it didn't quite reach his eyes. "Captain Summers, it is good to see you. That is quite a tan you have." He remarked

"Funny, it's not like I've been lounging around on the beach or something, Tatooine is no picnic, I feel like I've been baked and sand blasted."

"Well I appreciate you coming to my aide."

"Where's Anakin?"

A frown crossed Obi-Wan's tired features. "A lot has been happening on Coruscant in your absence. Anakin has been appointed to the Jedi Council by the Chancellor."

"Palpatine? Okay, I'm still kind of new here, but that's not normal, right?"

"Right. I fear that Anakin has grown too close to the Chancellor, and I fear that your feelings about him being evil are right. Anakin has been acting very strange lately and I worry that the Chancellor is swaying him to his side."

"I'm sure Anakin will see the Chancellor for what he is before it's too late."

"I hope your right." He paused. "He too reliant on his emotions though."

Buffy scowled and then smirked at Obi-Wan. "You don't want to get into that argument again do you? You know very well that I believe emotions can be very helpful."

Instead of the normal banter that Obi-Wan normally would've returned he hung his head. "I know that you believe that, but in this case I'm afraid that it might not be true."

Buffy put her hand on his arm and gave a slight squeeze. "We must hope for the best then."

Obi-Wan tensed at first at her touch, but then relaxed, he had grown used to Buffy's affinity for physical contact.

"Wow, you're getting better, you didn't even pull away that time." Buffy teased.

In truth, he had started to cherish the times that they were together and could be like this. He felt a blush rising so he cleared his throat nervously and pulled away. "We have reports that General Grievous is amassing his army on Utapau. Let's get your commanders together to go over the plan. More units will be joining us shortly."

The plan was to have Buffy and Obi-Wan go down to the planet first to see what the situation was with her unit waiting at the outer moon for the other troops to arrive. Upon Buffy and Obi-Wan's word of finding Grievous and his army the troops would attack.

When Buffy and Obi-Wan made it to the surface of Utapau Obi-Wan commented to Buffy. "Why did I let Anakin teach you to fly?"

"Because you got sick of me begging?"

"Oh yeah."

They were created in the hangar by a delegation from the planet, who informed them that General Grievous and his troops were on the 10th level. Obi-Wan sent their ship back with their droid to pass the message to the troops that Grievous was there, and then Buffy and Obi-Wan made their way to the 10th level.

The rode a lizard kind of thing, which did not make Buffy happy, which therefore made Obi-Wan laugh. She rode behind Obi-Wan holding on tightly to his waist. She asked if they were there yet every few minutes and kept her eyes shut tightly.

Although the trip may have felt like it took forever, it reality they made it to the 10th level with surprising speed. They looked down from the catwalk at Grievous and his robot troops.

Obi-Wan looked to Buffy to tell her his plan, but before he could say anything, she said. "Last one down is a rotten egg."

She then jumped off the catwalk and in the middle of the troops below. Obi-Wan followed right behind. They took out a dozen droids within seconds.

General Grievous stepped forward and told the troops to stand back, that he would take on Obi-Wan on his own. He completely ignored Buffy, which made her none too happy.

Buffy watched as Obi-Wan and General Grievous faced off with one another. Grievous shrugged off his cape and his two arms became four, which each wielded an equally deadly light saber. Buffy tried to move forward to help Obi-Wan, but she was yanked back and held in place by Grievous' guards. Sitting back and watching was not something Buffy was very good at. When she watched Obi-Wan sever two of the General arms and saw the sabers fall to the ground she decided to act.

Using the surprise of her movement and leverage she was able to knock two of her captures down and steal one of their blasters, which she used to shoot her final capture, she then rushed forward to where one of the Generals' arms had fallen and grabbed the light saber. With saber in hand she was better able to attack and defend herself against the numbers she was up against. She wasn't supposed to use a light saber, she was sure the council wouldn't approve, but she had always liked fighting with swords back home, and this was the closest thing in this dimension. It had taken quite a bit of convincing for Anakin to even let her try to use his, saying she wouldn't be able to control it, but he was quickly proved wrong. Obi-Wan would have a cow when he found out, but she was hoping he would be too preoccupied to notice.

Buffy was holding her own against the droids, but when the destroyers started rolling out she knew she was in trouble unless Commander Cody and his troops arrived soon. She took a brief moment to look over at Obi-Wan, and saw that he was in a similar situation. Then she was him knocked over and the General standing over him ready to strike the final blow. Buffy wasn't about to let that happen, so she took aim with her blaster and shot at Grievous. She knew it wouldn't kill him, but wanted to distract him, it worked. The blast hit the General square in the back, he turned and glared at her, and started to stalk toward her. Luckily before he could reach her the Army of the Republic swept down around them. Grievous looked at the troops firing upon his droids and then took off for a transport. Buffy saw Obi-Wan take off after him on their lizard friend. Buffy took a few more droids out and looked for her own transportation to follow them. It took her a few minutes to find something she could pilot, but she was soon on her way taking out as many droids as she could along the way.

When she finally caught up with them she wondered why she had bothered, she saw Obi-Wan hanging off the edge of the platform and the General standing over him, but she also saw as Obi-Wan used the force to get the blaster and then blow Grievous away. It was pretty spectacular.

Buffy walked over to the edge where Obi-Wan was still hanging and pouted. "No far, you didn't leave any for me."

"Yes well, you could give me a hand up instead."

Buffy reached down and easily helped Obi-Wan to his feet. Again relishing the time their hands were in contact with one another. After holding on for longer than was proper, Obi-Wan cleared his throat and let go of Buffy's hand.

"Shall we join the battle?" He asked her with a grin on his face.

"We shall." Buffy replied.

They returned to the battle and found that Commander Cody had things well in hand, so Obi-Wan took the time to send a message back to the council to let them know that General Grievous was dead. The council let him know they wanted him to return to Coruscant immediately. He informed Commander Cody and then asked if he had seen where Captain Summers had gone. Commander Cody said he had seen her going up to the next level to make sure things were secure there.

Obi-Wan jumped on the lizard and started making his way toward the next lizard, when out of no where there was a cannon blast. He turned to see the Republic's own guards firing on him, and then he saw the sky because he was falling.

Buffy watch in horror as the Republic's own soldiers turned and fired on Obi-Wan. She ducked out of sight when she saw Commander Cody looking up to where she had been watching. Then she overheard the radio of one of the nearby soldiers, "Take Captain Summers into custody, and don't hurt her, the Chancellor wants her alive."

Buffy couldn't even act surprised that the Chancellor was behind this. She needed to get out of there, but she needed to see if Obi-Wan had somehow survived his fall, she didn't think he had been actually hit by the blast, just thrown off, so she had hope.

She hid until the troops had spread out sufficiently to look for her, and then she headed for the hangar. There were two troopers guarding the ship she wanted. She couldn't afford to let anyone see her take off and raise the alarm, so she snuck up behind the men and quickly and quietly snapped both of their necks. She then jumped into the ship and headed down toward where she saw Obi-Wan fall. She reached out with her senses and found him crawling up out of the water. She hovered next to him to allow him to jump in the ship.

"Are you hurt?" She asked him.

"No, I'll be fine. We need to get out of here and warn the council."

"It was the Chancellor, I overheard it on the radio, he gave the clones Order 66, and that's when they opened fire on you, and then he ordered them to take me into custody."

They exited the atmosphere of Utapau without being noticed, once at a safe distance Obi-Wan connected to emergency channel 913 to try and warn the council. He was immediately connected to Senator Organa, who informed them that he had just picked up Master Yoda. He also sent them his coordinates so they could rendezvous.

When they met up Master Yoda informed them that attacks had been carried out on Jedi's across the universe, and so far he had been able to contact no one else. Also, the Temple was emitting a message that the war was over and that all Jedi were to return to the temple, they couldn't leave any remaining Jedi to this trap, so they made plans to return to Coruscant to disable the message.

Buffy and Obi-Wan were given rooms so they could clean up and rest on the journey. Buffy eagerly took a shower, but knew she wouldn't be able to rest, at least not yet. She went to Obi-Wan's room and knocked. He opened it right away, she could see that he had also showered, but was not yet resting either.

"Am I bothering you?" She asked him.

"No, of course not, come in."

Buffy walked past him and stood looking out the window at the vastness of space around them. "Even after all this time in this dimension, I still can't get used to being able to fly through space like this." She said hearing him walk up and stand beside her.

"You should be resting you know." Was Obi-Wan's reply.

"I couldn't. I need to do something first."

She turned toward him and wrapped her arms around him. "When I saw you fall I don't think I had been that scared since I got here."

Obi-Wan stood there not knowing what to do. While he had gotten somewhat used to Buffy putting her hand on his arm and innocent touching like that, she had never hugged him before.

When Buffy realized that Obi-Wan wasn't hugging her back she let go, stepped back and looked up at him. "I'm sorry, I had to do that."

Obi-Wan didn't say anything. He just looked at her.

Buffy took a step back toward him, and began to reach up; her lips were a breath away when Obi-Wan stepped back. "Buffy, I'm sorry I can't. …"

He saw Buffy's shoulders slump forward slightly, and she turned back and faced the window.

"You know, you Jedi are really screwed up. Emotions are what make life worth living. Sure they suck sometimes, you can get hurt, but even when you get hurt, you at least are feeling something instead of just locking it up inside of you. You worry about Anakin, but at least he …" Buffy stopped herself before she finished, she had almost just betrayed the greatest confidence she had ever been given.

"You know what never mind." She turned to leave.

Obi-Wan moved to stop her. "What about Anakin?"

"Never mind."

"Buffy?"

"Have you thought about what you're going to do if you and Master Yoda are the only Jedi's left? What if the Chancellor's 'Order 66' was successful in wiping out the rest of the Jedi?"

Buffy didn't wait for a response; she just walked back to her room and tried to relax. She had a feeling the worst was yet to come. After calming herself with a Tai Chi routine, she finally fell asleep, but it wasn't for long, and it wasn't restful. She dreamt of Mustafar, but this time it wasn't of when she landed there, this time it was different she was standing on a bank by the river of lava watching an amazing light saber battle. At first it was from afar so she couldn't see who was battling, but slowing they were moving closer to her and her heart clinched at the sight of Obi-Wan and Anakin battling. She watched Obi-Wan flip onto the bank. He had the high ground there would be nothing Anakin could do now, but then she saw Anakin try to flip over Obi-Wan, and woke up with a start with the sight of Obi-Wan cutting off Anakin's remaining arm, and his legs.

There was a pounding at her door. It was Obi-Wan. "Buffy are you alright?"

She must have screamed out in her sleep. Buffy paused not sure how to answer. Was she alright? Should she tell Obi-Wan what she saw?

The pounding on her door grew more pronounced. She walked over and opened the door, and just looked at Obi-Wan, still not sure what to say.

"Are you alright? I heard you scream."

Buffy rubbed the back of her neck and then looked down at her feet. "Yeah, um, sorry if I bothered you, it was just a bad dream. I'm alright now, thanks."

"It's no bother, are you sure you're alright?"

"Yeah fine." She replied and a shut the door again. 'Well that's the end of sleeping now.' She thought to herself.

When they reached Coruscant, Buffy snuck with Yoda and Obi-Wan to the Jedi Temple. There were still troops guarding it, but the two Jedi Masters, and Buffy made quick work of them. Neither Yoda nor Obi-Wan made any comment about Buffy using the light saber she had taken from General Grievous.

The sight inside the temple was heartbreaking, all of the younglings had been killed. 'No' Buffy thought to herself, 'Not killed, murdered in cold blood.' And by a light saber Master Yoda had noted.

Obi-Wan made quick work of updating the message to tell any surviving Jedi to stay away. Then he checked the video logs, each of them already knew what they would see, but Obi-Wan needed proof. With the sight of Anakin striking down the younglings, it could no longer be denied.

Yoda was going after the Chancellor, and he ordered Obi-Wan to go after Anakin. Obi-Wan protested at first, but he knew he did so in vane.

"What about me?" Buffy asked.

"You should go back to Senator Organa's ship, you will be safe there."

"No, let me at least go with Obi-Wan." She protested.

"Buffy." Obi-Wan started. "I don't even know where I'm going or how long it could take."

She wanted to shout that he would find him on Mustafar, but something stopped her. Perhaps it was a vane attempt on her part to try and stop the inevitable from happening. So Buffy just glared at him and stormed out of the temple.

Based on what she had just seen she knew where she needed to go first. She jumped in a speeder and headed for Padmes' apartment. She was surprised to find her very pregnant.

"Oh my goodness Padme." Buffy exclaimed.

"Buffy! What are you doing here?"

They walked over to the couch and sat down.

"Padme, do you know what's been going on out there?"

"Yes, the Chancellor has named the Republic an Empire and named himself Emperor."

This was news to Buffy.

"Do you know about that has happened to the Jedi?" Buffy asked her.

"I saw the smoke over at the temple, and then Anakin came to tell me that the Jedi had tried to overthrow the Chancellor, so the Chancellor had declared war on the Jedi." She paused tears were now streaming down her face. "Anakin has sided with the Palpatine."

"Padme, I've just come from the temple…" Buffy was interrupted by a knock on Padme's door.

Padme returned with Obi-Wan in tow. He looked at Buffy and said. "You're not supposed to be here."

Buffy just glared at him.

Padme sat back down next to Buffy, and Obi-Wan took a seat next to her.

Buffy looked on as Obi-Wan tried to convince Padme to tell him where Anakin was. Then when Obi-Wan asked her if Anakin was the father of her child, Padme looked at Buffy. Buffy put an arm around Padme.

"I didn't say anything to him, I swear."

Padme rested her head on Buffy's shoulder and Buffy shot a look over at Obi-Wan.

"You knew?" he asked her.

"I didn't know she was pregnant, but I knew about her and Anakin yes." She replied softly as she tried to comfort Padme.

"And you didn't say anything?"

"Now is not the time for this conversation." She told him.

Obi-Wan stood slowly, and then addressed Padme. "I'm very sorry Padme. I'm so very sorry."

Padme righted her self from Buffy's shoulder and wiped away her tears. "Could you both leave now? I'd like to be alone."

Buffy looked at her. "Are you sure? I can stay."

"Obi-Wan was right you shouldn't be here."

"But Padme…"

"Please Buffy just go."

Buffy's heart ached at the anguish in Padme's voice. She knew better than to try and argue with her, so she embraced Padme and then stood and walked quietly out with Obi-Wan following.

Once alone in the elevator Obi-Wan said. "She knows where he is."

Buffy just looked at him.

"I want you to go back to Senator Organa's ship and stay there."

Buffy continued to just look at him.

"I'm going to stay here and watch Padme, I think she'll try to warn Anakin."

The elevator doors opened and Buffy walked out, only to be stopped by Obi-Wan calling after her. "Buffy? Will you return to the Senator's ship?"

"No…no I won't"

She began to walk away again, this time to be stopped by Obi-Wan's hand on her shoulder, it was the first time he had ever initiated physical contact with her, and it made her heart ache. "Where will you go?"

"It doesn't really matter anymore does it? The Emperor has won, the Republic is gone, and so are the Jedi."

"Master Yoda may yet stop the Emperor."

"Oh come on, wake up. You Jedi didn't even know that a Sith Lord was right in front of you all these years, the man is powerful. I'm sorry to say it, but Master Yoda will not succeed."

She could see it in his eyes that he knew she spoke the truth. She reached up and put a hand on his cheek. "Good bye Obi-Wan." And then she stood on her tip toes and kissed him. It wasn't the passionate kiss she had once hoped to share with him, instead it was a sad chaste kiss. She lowered herself back down and began to walk out of the building.

"Buffy?" Obi-Wan called after her, but she didn't stop. He continued, "Will I see you again?"

Buffy still didn't stop, in her head she was thinking they'd see each other soon on Mustafar, but hopefully with a different outcome than her dream.

After leaving Obi-Wan behind to follow Padme, Buffy's first task was to look for a ship to steal. She knew she could take one by force, but that would be surely noticed, and she'd end up leading the storm troopers to Mustafar, which would not work well into her plan.

It took her longer than she had hoped to find a ship, it had already been a few hours since she had left Obi-Wan. She plotted her course to Mustafar and hoped she could get there before Obi-Wan did.

On the way to Mustafar Buffy tried to construct in her head what she'd say to Anakin. She feared it was too late for him, but she would try before it came down to the battle she had seen in her dream.

Buffy landed on Mustafar and only saw Anakin's ship on the platform. She saw him striding toward her as she disembarked from her ship. As he got nearer she saw that his eyes were practically glowing yellow.

"Buffy? What are you doing here?" He asked through clinched teeth.

"I came to talk to you, and hopefully talk some sense into you."

"I don't know what you mean. How did you know I was here?"

"You don't think you're the only one to have dreams do you?"

"You should leave now." He growled.

"Not until you've listened to me. I've been to the temple, I've seen the security recordings, I know what you've done, but I want you to know it's not too late; you can step back from this. Do it for Padme and your child she's carrying."

"I am doing this for Padme. I had a dream that she's going to die in child birth, and the Emperor has promised to help me keep that from happening."

"Oh come on Anakin, you know how dreams can be, they're up for interpretation, you don't know that the path you've now started with the Sith isn't the thing that causes the dream to come true. There is a turning point, perhaps this is it."

"No, I can't believe that." He took a menacing step toward her, but she didn't back down.

"And if by some horrible twist of fate she doesn't survive childbirth, you will live on hopefully with a beautiful child to raise. Take it from someone who as lost everyone I've loved, life does go on, it sucks sometimes, but it goes on and it gets better. You never forget, but you learn to cope. Now please come with me, we'll leave this place and go get Padme, and then go somewhere quiet and safe."

Before Anakin could respond they heard a ship approaching. "Who did you tell I was here?"

"No one."

"Don't lie to me." He held out his hand and began to choke her as Count Dooku had once done. Then he stopped, he saw that the ship that approached was Padme's. Buffy collapsed to the ground unconscious soon after seeing Padme running toward Anakin.

When she came to she saw no sign of Anakin, but Padme was in a heap on the ground. She rushed to her side and thankfully found her breathing was steady. She picked her up and put her on her ship, making her as comfortable as possible, telling C3 PO and R2 D2 to watch over her. Then she went in search of Anakin. Unfortunately when she found him it was her dream come to fruition. Anakin and Obi-Wan were battling on the river of lava, jumping from platform to platform. Finally she stood frozen as she watched the final scene from her dream played out. Obi-Wan flipped to the bank of the lava river and this time she could hear their yelling. Obi-Wan was telling Anakin not to try it, that he had the high ground, that Anakin was like his brother, but it was of no use. Anakin attempted to flip over Obi-Wan and he was cut down just like in Buffy's dream, but this time she didn't wake up. Instead she screamed, and ran toward them. Obi-Wan grabbed her as she tried to run by to get to Anakin who was amazingly still alive, and trying to climb up the bank.

"Let me go." She growled at Obi-Wan, but he held tight.

"No, it's not too late he's still alive." She called on all her strength and pulled away from him. The heat from the lava was overwhelming, she couldn't get close enough to reach Anakin, so she laid down on her stomach and tried to reach toward him.

"Anakin, reach." She implored him.

"Go away", he cried out. His robotic arm straining to keep him out of the lava.

"Please Anakin, don't give up."

"I hate you, I hate you both." He yelled as fires started to leap from lava and burn at him.

Buffy felt a tug at her feet and the next thing she knew she was yanked on her feet by Obi-Wan. "We must get out of here." He told her.

"I will not leave him behind. I was getting through to him before you came. There is still good in him."

"How were you getting through to him? You were unconscious when I got here."

"He heard the ship and thought I had betrayed him, he didn't realize that it was Padme's ship, which I'm assuming you stowed away on. You can leave, I've already put Padme on her ship, but I'm not leaving Anakin here alone."

"He doesn't want you here."

"He doesn't know what he wants. The Emperor has severely screwed with his mind, but that can be undone."

Buffy turned back toward Anakin's anguished screams, but before she could take a step toward him she felt a pain on the back of her head and then darkness.

She awoke not knowing where she was or how long she had been unconscious. She also found that she had been strapped down to the bed, but the straps were no match for her slayer strength and she was quickly free of them. Once free she walked out of the room she had been kept in, which thankfully wasn't locked, and found that she recognized Senator Organa's ship. She found a crew member and asked were the Senator was, she was pointed toward the medical room. She walked in to find Obi-Wan, Senator Organa, and Master Yoda looking in on Padme. She marched right up to Obi-Wan and punched him as hard as she could. He went flying across the room and crumbled in a heap on the floor. She then turned to Senator Organa and Master Yoda and asked how Padme and the baby was with out skipping a beat.

"She had twins, a boy, Luke, and a girl, Leia, but I'm afraid we're losing her." The Senator replied.

Buffy went over to Padme and took her hand. "Padme, it's Buffy. You have to fight, you have to fight for your children."

Padme's eyes opened and she turned toward Buffy. "It's too late, Buffy, I'm sorry."

"No, it's not too late, you have to fight. Fight for Luke and Leia. I can't lose you too." Buffy was no longer able to hold back the tears. She gripped Padmes' hand tighter and kneeled by her bed. She felt Obi-Wan come up behind her, and then heard Padme speak again. "There is still good in him, I know it."

"I know there is too." Buffy responded, and then Padme was gone with Buffy left holding her lifeless hand in her own. She stayed like that not wanting to let go, not wanting to admit that Padme was truly gone. She heard Obi-Wan leave her there. After a few minutes she felt someone else approach, it was Senator Organa.

"Come Buffy, we must let them take care of her body." She let him help her up and lead her out of the room where she found Obi-Wan and Master Yoda waiting. She saw that Obi-Wan already had a bruise forming where she had hit him. She didn't feel sorry for it.

"The children?" she asked.

"Taken care of, they will be." Master Yoda answered. "Leia will go with the Senator, and Obi-Wan will take Luke to his relatives on Tatooine."

"Where are we headed now?" Buffy asked.

"We are on our way to Naboo, to take Padme home." The Senator replied.

Buffy turned to walk away. "Do I have the same room as before Senator? And I don't mean the one I found myself strapped down in earlier." The last part she said with a pointed stare at Obi-Wan.

"Yes of course. I'm sorry about the restraints we were afraid you'd wake up…" He hesitated as if searching for the right word. "…combative."

"Well you didn't get that wrong did you?" She turned and again started to walk away.

"Where will you go?" The Senator asked. "The Emperor has his troops looking for you."

"I will go with you to Naboo for the funeral of my dearest friend in this dimension, after that I don't know."

This time they didn't stop her when she walked away. She went to her room and laid on the bed looking out into space. A while later she heard a knock on the door, but she didn't move to get it, she had a good idea of who it was and she didn't really want to talk to him. The knocking stopped after awhile, and she continued to lay there. Then after some time she heard the door slide open. This time there had been no knock.

She didn't turn toward the door, in fact she didn't move a muscle. Obi-Wan walked in front of her line of view and stared out in space as well.

"I will be leaving soon." He paused to see if she would say anything. "Master Yoda will be leaving as well. He asked me to tell you that he'll be staying in the Degoba system and that if you are ever passing that way he'd like you to stop in and see him."

Obi-Wan paused again, but Buffy still hadn't flinched.

"Say something please." He turned to look at her.

She shifted her gaze up to meet his. "You were wrong to leave him there."

"It was too late for him. The things he did could not be undone."

"You're right, they couldn't be undone, he would've had a lot to deal with, but we would've helped him deal. Now it is too late, he is out of our reach and firmly in the Emperor's clutches now."

"Can I ask you a question?"

Buffy just shrugged in response.

"How did you know Anakin was on Mustafar?"

"It was the dream I had the other night, I saw your battle play out, so I went hoping to stop it before it happened. Obviously I failed."

"I'm very sorry Buffy." Obi-Wan sat on the edge of bed and put a hand on her shoulder.

"Please don't touch me."

Obi-Wan quickly removed his hand, and Buffy continued. "What are you sorry for? Are you sorry for Anakin, are you sorry that I saw what was going to happen and couldn't change it, or better yet are you sorry that you knocked me unconscious and strapped me down? I've told you some of the things that happened when Merrick owned me, the sense of helplessness I felt and how much I hated it, but yet I awoke today with that same feeling, but this time it was someone who I considered a friend who put me in that situation."

Buffy had not raised her voice a single decibel which probably scared him more than anything. She was normally so fiery, but now she just laid there.

"If I hadn't broken out of my restraints how long would you have left me there?"

"Buffy…" Obi-Wan started but Buffy cut him off.

"You know what never mind. It doesn't really matter anymore. We can't go back and change it, we can't brink Padme or Anakin back, I can't bring Giles back, or Xander, or Willow or Tara or Dawn, or my Mom." By now tears were freely failing she had not spoken of her old friends and family since before Giles had died.

"Did you know that I was in love once? Like real true love like Anakin and Padme, the kind that hurts so much, but yet feels so good. His name was Angel, and he had a dark side, he had killed a lot of people, but he was atoning for it. My friends and family didn't always understand it, but I was there to help him through it. It was his demon insides fault, not his. I think he and Anakin are a lot alike. I sometimes wonder if Angel is still alive back in my dimension. Wonder if he still thinks of me sometimes too."

"I'm sure that he thinks of you, I'm sure that anyone whose life you ever touched thinks of you. I know that I'll never be able to forget you."

Buffy's gaze met his once more. "I'll never forget you either." She dropped her gaze back to the window. "Take care of yourself, and keep and eye on Luke, I have a feeling he has big things ahead of him."

Obi-Wan knew he had been dismissed. So he stood and walked toward the door. "You take care of yourself too, be careful out there, it won't be safe. I hope to see you again." He turned back toward the door, but was stopped before he reached it by Buffy standing in front of him. He hadn't even heard her move from the bed.

"I know I said not to touch me, but please let me hug you and have you hug me back, just this once."

Obi-Wan didn't even hesitate, he opened his arms and enveloped her, with her head tucked under his chin. They didn't stand there long. Buffy was afraid if she held of for even a moment to long she would never be able to let go. So she pulled away and stepped aside. "Good bye Obi-Wan."

"Good bye Buffy."

And then he was gone, and Buffy was alone again.

FIN


End file.
